The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1887-09-15
The Suffering of Shy Children.

Pity the sufferings Of shy children;
stand between these little ones and the
people who unthinkingly or cruelty
infict pain upon these tender souls.
Why outrage child's faith in nature,
human and material, If he has such
faith, or prevent his acquiring it, by
taking advantage of his shyness and
want of self-confdence? Why fill
him with distrust, with fear, with ter
or? Why convert the world that
should be beautiful to him, into one
that is to be dreaded? lie the person
that does these things is anything
short of brute, he is still guilty of a
serious offense that no carelessness can
excuse.
Courage and confidence should be
stimulated in a child who is shy He
should be taught to believe that his
extreme distrust is ill-founded. by
showing him the source of his error.
A happy life will then be opened to
him, where all before was desolate.
But to intensity this shyness is an
easy matter, and many children have
been made to feel the pangs Of mis-
cradle existence through soaring, ter
rifying and various impositions upon
their weakness lie child is abashed
at the presence of a stranger, conf
dence in himself and the stranger also
can be awakened by treating the child
with considerate regard for his feel
and and by a gentle pressure behind
him that shall force him to overcome
them. But to expose the infrmity
and laugh at it in ridicule, increase
the pain and make the cure all the
more difficult, so that the sufferer
must undergo additional pains when
he grows up, and must overcome them
the best way he may in his unavoida-
BILE contact with the world.
What a gratifying thing it must be
to scare child-to fill his heart with
hoogoblins, to people the darkness
with monsters, to manufacture sur
roundings that necessarily menace
harm. This would be amusement to
the savage who burns his captives at
the stake, but to the person living in
this nineteenth century of civilization
it should be as repulsive as savagery
itself. How pleasing an act it must
be to frighten a child to death, as is
now and then done, or to scare the lit
lie one till he stands transfxed with
terror trembling III agony,
Strengthen shy children to bear
misfortune and to overcome it; do not
subject them to ricicule or fear They
can be led out Of the manifold unhap-
happiness arising from shyness, by
strengthening each cautious step until
familiarity makes it permanent; and
so, little at time, they can be ad-
vanced in confidence and courage un-
til they dare to look about them with
out fear Of failure or harm. The i'm
pressions of childhood are often al
most ineradicable; people should take
care, then, that those impressions shall
be true, hopeful, giving self-confdence
and courage to those, who need it.
There can be assault and battery
against the feelings as we'll as against
the body, and the former offense is
more enduring and more painful than
the latter. It is just as inalienable a
right that ones feelings shall not be
be outraged as that his bodily liberty
shall not be abridged, and the shy
child demands immunity and protec-
tion from those who outrage this
right by making him victim Of his
shyness.-